


By My Side

by castronomicaaal



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M, Miscarriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 03:16:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17779559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/castronomicaaal/pseuds/castronomicaaal
Summary: The air is muggy in late August as Beth tends to the walker hoards piling up against the fences.





	By My Side

The air is muggy in late August as Beth tends to the walker hoards piling up against the fences.

Tyreese and Sasha stand to her right, poking and prodding through the fence themselves, killing walker after walker. The smell is sickening, but they’re all used to it by now. There’s a ripeness to the air that comes with the territory these days, it seems.

Beth continues to stick walkers through the head with her makeshift shiv stick, the sounds of bone and rotten flesh crunching beneath each touch.

“It’s a great day for killing walkers,” Sasha teases, all smiles. She and Tyreese share a grin and Beth smirks herself, pausing her ministrations to turn and look at the sibling duo. That one second break in rhythm is all it takes, it seems, and one of the walkers right up next to the fence grabs onto Beth’s blonde ponytail, pulling her head towards its waiting mouth.

Beth lets out a scream of both pain and fear, her boots digging into the earthy dirt below in attempts to stop the walker from claiming her. Both Sasha and Tyreese are on her in seconds, hands grabbing her arms as they pull her small frame away from the fence and away from impending doom.

Beth falls to her knees the moment she’s far enough away, gasping for air. Her hands clutch at her throat as she coughs in a wild attempt to breathe.

“Beth, calm down, you’re okay, you’re okay, I’ve got you.” Tyreese tries to sooth the blonde, clutching her small frame within his own larger one.

She nods frantically and begins to try and halt her over-breathing. Sasha presses her hand to Beth’s back, rubbing soothing circles.

Eventually Beth’s agitated breathing lessens, and she’s able to calm herself down.

“Scared me,” she mumbles, suddenly embarrassed by her outburst.

Sasha and Tyreese both release a unanimous laugh, one that has Beth laughing as well. The tension dissipates and a sense of deep relief washes over. Once they’ve all calmed down, Sasha helps Beth to stand back up.

Tyreese’s grin falls from his lips the moment he spots a patch of blood coloring the green grass where Beth had just been sitting.

The brunette notices Tyreese’s frown and pouts herself, pushing her brother on the shoulder. “Beth’s fine, we’re all fine.”

He pauses before shaking his head and pointing towards the grass. The other two in his company turn to look.

“Shit,” Sasha mumbles, turning back to Beth, whose face has now drained of any blood. A pale sheen coats her already light-toned skin.

“Am I, was I bit? I don’t think I was bit…” The blonde mumbles in a daze. That’s when Sasha notices it’s coming from her lower half, traveling down in between her thighs.

She pauses, swallowing nervously. “Period?”

Beth shakes her head. “Haven’t had one of those in nearly a year.” She provides, although both already knew as much. In a world where the dead walk and food is scarce, undernourishment runs rampant.

Tyreese turns away for the sake of Beth’s modesty while Sasha helps the small blonde to undress. Once she’s in her undergarments, Sasha looks her over the best she can.

“You look good, Beth. That’s a good sign. I don’t see any bite marks.” Sasha attempts to calm the young woman.

Beth nods absentmindedly, now clutching at her stomach. “I’m cramping,” she tells Sasha. “It’s gettin’ worse. Please,” she pauses, falling back down into the dirt. “It hurts. Take me to my daddy, please.”

Modesty be damned, Tyreese turns back by this point and lifts the tiny girl into his arms. Right now he doesn’t care about her appearance or about the blood now coating his arm, all he cares about is her safety.

By the time they make it to the prison, Beth is crying out heavily in pain. This causes a small crowd to approach, on their toes and ready to act fast.

“Hershel, where’s Hershel?” Sasha shouts, pushing through the newfound hoard of people.

He hobbles up to the group moments later, his mouth dropping in confusion the moment he spots his girl in Tyreese’s shaking hands.

“Bethy…”

Rick, Carol, Michonne, and Maggie are hot on Hershel’s heels and all five of them envelope the group.

“What the hell is goin’ on here?” Rick berates, his voice echoing throughout the prison cell. He doesn’t want to draw conclusions, doesn’t want to be _that_ person, but right now Beth is half naked and bleeding and he wants some damn answers.

Sasha stutters briefly, her hand coming up to swipe at her brow. “A walker got her by the hair out by the fences. Thought she was okay but she started bleeding. We checked all over for bites but we can’t find any.”

Hershel nods understandingly before motioning them over towards the nearest cell. Tyreese lays Beth gently on the cot before stepping out, allowing both Hershel and Carol to enter and begin their examinations.

It takes Hershel all of twenty seconds to assess the situation, his eyes landing on the crowd disbelievingly but knowingly, and frowns so deeply his eyes crease even more than usual.

“Beth is experiencing a miscarriage,” Hershel supplies vaguely before turning back towards his barely conscious daughter. He grabs her hand and squeezes tightly, refusing to let go.

From her spot just outside the cell door, Maggie gasps loudly and presses her hands to her lips.

* * *

 

“Maggie, you need to step back and take a breath.”

Glenn’s attempts to calm his furious wife have been in vain thus far. He watches helplessly as she continues to pace along the floor of the main cell area, nearby where Beth is now resting. Hershel is still in there with her but the curtains have since closed. Maggie has no idea what is going on.

“When I find the son of a bitch that hurt my baby sister, I’ll kill ‘em, I will.” Maggie spits out, venom lacing her voice.

Glenn wants to tell her that Beth is an adult, that she can make her own choices, but he fears for his own life in this moment, too, so instead remains silently, biting at his already whittled down nails.

To his left, Daryl and Rick perch in separate chairs, both quiet but with thoughtful looks on their faces.

* * *

 

Two long hours later and Hershel emerges from behind the cloth.

Maggie is the first one to him, clutching his hand within her own. “Is Beth okay? Is she okay?”

“She’s going to be fine,” Hershel promises, doing his best to put on a smile for his oldest daughters sake. “She didn’t lose too much blood and the pain has since subsided. The baby has passed. She will be okay.”

“Baby? So you’re,” Maggie pauses, gulping heavily. “So it’s true? She was pregnant?”

“Well, at this point more like fetal tissue, but yes Maggie, the baby.” Hershel figures there’s no reason to lie, to sugar coat the truth. His baby was pregnant with a baby of her own, and now she’s not. He feels ashamed in feeling relief - no child needs to grow up in a world like this, not now. Now isn’t the right time.

“Did she say who with? Did somebody force her into this? Say who and I’ll shoot ‘em, daddy.” Maggie tells him, her own eyes widening, her anger returning.

Hershel shakes his head, cupping his child’s head within his hands. “You’ll do no such thing, Maggie. Yes, Bethy told me who the father was. No, I will not be telling you. It’s up to Beth to tell you that. You might not like that, but you will respect it. Beth is a woman now, and there’s nothing we can do to change that truth.”

Rick flinches at those words. _Yes, Bethy told me who the father was._ Luckily for him, eyes are trained on the scene ahead. He slips from the crowd without as little as a goodbye.

* * *

 

Hershel finds him at midnight.

Rick is outside, everyone else having long since went to bed, and he sits on one of their makeshift pavilions, one of Daryl’s stolen cans of beer in his hands.

“Take it from me, drinking will put you in an early grave.” Hershel tells him before he takes his place across from the younger man.

Rick nods, takes one more sip, and tosses the mostly full can aside. “Never been much of a drinker anyway,” he admits.

Hershel ‘hmms’ noncommittally in response. “How about a man? You ever been one of those?”

The brunette pauses, his eyes scrunching closed. Ouch. He has to admit, that one hurts. It’s probably the truth, though. Rick’s been disappointing people since day one. The next thing out of Hershel’s mouth comes as a complete surprise, however.

“You see your girl, in pain on a cot bleeding out, and you don’t even have the guts to hold her hand?”

“I - ” Rick pauses because he doesn’t know what to say. He figured Hershel would have his ass for knocking up his daughter, not for not comforting her in her time of need.

“Listen Rick, I know you’re a man. A good one. And I know Bethy is in good hands with you, or at least I thought she would be. Not if you treat her like that, she’s not. Is she supposed to be a secret, Rick?”

This catches the mans attention and he sits up taller, shaking his head quietly. “No sir. We were just waitin’ on the right time to tell you.”

Hershel nods. “I thought as much. If she’s never been your secret, why didn’t you come clean earlier? Why didn’t you take my Bethy’s hand?”

Rick pauses thoughtfully, his eyes crinkling in debate. “I was scared,” he admits finally. “It’s no excuse, I know that, but I was scared. Still am. The thought of another baby, of another child - ” He freezes, choking up for the first time that night. “And how Beth could of died today. I was scared.”

Hershel seems to take this admission at face value, smiling softly as he clutches onto Rick’s wrist. “You are a good man, Rick Grimes. Now go, hold my girl’s hand and promise her that things are gonna be alright.”

And Rick does.


End file.
